Please, pardon me!

Following an “epidemic” of unjustifiable and dubious pardons for too many acts and offset in time, I think that both Biden and Trump have made a mockery of the device, and that it now falls to Congress and States to work on a constitutional amendment to fix a power that has gone astray. 

At the same time, it should define a more reasonable presidential immunity against what was recently stated by the Supreme Court. 

This wouldn’t be easy, but given Biden and Trump’s bipartisan excesses, this might be possible. It would work like this, first by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, then once proposed, the amendment has to be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures or by conventions in three-fourths of the states. 

 As stated in the US Constitution, the presidential pardon power says that the president has the power to "grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment". This would mean that this power is broad and Congress can do little against it. The president can pardon someone at any time after the crime was committed, including before legal proceedings, during proceedings, or after conviction. 

The president can also commute sentences, remit fines and forfeitures, and grant amnesties. The president's pardon power is intended to be a tool of mercy and justice, and to serve the public interest. When we look at these weak and far too general “guardrails”, we can see that there’s plenty of room for abuse, as the pardon power, as we’ve just witnessed it, can be used to pardon political allies or friends, raising concerns about favoritism and corruption. 

Further, there is no requirement for the president to justify or explain pardons, leading to a lack of transparency. The worst in my view is that a President can issue pardons before charges are filed, which some argue undermines the justice system. Finally, some pardons have sparked public outrage, such as those granted to individuals involved in significant scandals or crimes. 

This is why I believe what we’ve just seen regarding the Biden family or the January 6 criminals warrant a full Constitutional Amendment, as hard and difficult it may seem.

Is Biden a war criminal too ?

On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court unanimously issued two decisions rejecting challenges by the State of Israel. 

At the same time it also issued warrants of arrest for Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the applications for warrants of arrest were filed. 

After the Gaza and Lebanon carnage, it seems that it’s hard to argue with that decision. It’s also terrible for us, Americans, to see our tax money diverted to be used for committing these crimes. Now, the question I’m asking is what role did Joe Biden played in keeping on arming Israel for conducting these massacres?

Weren’t the Democrats Israel’s partners in that genocide? By offsetting support for Israel with hollow humanitarian gestures and empathy for Palestinians, Biden has diluted pressure to end the war. 

It now seems pretty clear to me that the Biden administration supported and perpetuated the same genocide under a veneer of legitimacy, by diffusing pressure with platitudes about peace while deepening America’s complicity…

Will John Robert’s become a Kangaroo Court?

Today was the Supreme Court’s hearing Donald Trump’s claim that the federal charges accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election must be thrown out because he is immune from being prosecuted for any official act he took as president.

I listened to part of it, and after reading the first opinions from various pundits, I can sense plenty of sympathy for Trump on the part of some conservative Supreme Court Justices. While we have no idea as to how and when this claim will be adjudicated, I fear that our top Judges will kick the can down the road as much as possible and make it difficult for the case to be done before the November election. 

Why do I think that way? Deep inside, the conservative majority doesn’t want their decision on abortion be annulled following a Biden and Democrat victory in both Chambers, that might suggest that the 9 current judges could be diluted to 13 to permit such a turnaround. 

So, theses Judges might secretly hope Trump stays in power to prove them right and maintain their feeble credibility among the Nation. If I’m right, we might be as I fear it, faced with a Kangaroo Court, for lack of a better qualifier...

Estimating Putin’s destruction in Ukraine

If Putin is to be kept accountable for the huge damage he has inflicted to Ukraine since the beginning of his unjustified war of aggression, he is already behind almost $110 billion in damage to the country infrastructure according to a study from Kyiv School of Economics and 3.5 million people homeless according to the Ukraine’s defense ministry. 

The worst though, is the loss of human lives, that according to a recent Zelensky’s interview by the CBS news network for its 60 minutes magazine, amounts to 500,000 including civilians and soldiers on both sides. 

This might be overstated but it’s not too far from a Reuters article from April 12, in which the news organization claims that as many as 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the Ukraine war at that point in time.

What that massacre tells me is that priority number one is to remove Putin, unless the world can stand to increase and perhaps double that number or even more, should he decide to nuke humanity into oblivion. 

There's John Lyly’s quote that “All is fair in love and war”, but the fairest thing to do NOW is to neutralize Putin before he lives to his nefarious potential. Humanity has no excuse for not acting.

A solution to French teenage murderers?

Recently, a 14-year-old girl was found dead on in Paris, after being thrown into the Seine river. She was the victim of an ambush organized by two 15-year-old classmates. 

This sad event had a huge impact all over France with Social Media being designated as the obvious and largest culprit. 

From a distance and common-sense perspective though, this terrible tragedy puts most of the responsibility squarely on those parents who have long given up raising their off-springs. Instead, they’ve let school, media or technology assume their parental role. 

Under French law, the culprits, being minors, can’t be locked up for more than 20 years. Shouldn’t the parents face the music too and assume partial penal responsibility for the act of their kids by being locked up for a matching number of years, not to mention the assumption of civil liability arising in such situations. 

If the law was changed in that direction, behaviors would change drastically the concept of parenting and its responsibilities.

The crashed Ukrainian airliner

How would you feel if a love one of yours was of the many victims of the recent crash near Tehran?

You might feel that the Iranian defense forces are a bunch of trigger-happy, imbeciles and would be rightfully angry about them, but I can’t help to think that you’d be even more angry about the other imbecile that “started the fight”, namely Trump.

Without his decision to assassinate Qasem Soleimani, this sorry series of incidents would never have taken place.

So if one of my loved ones had perished in that plane crash, I would immediately see who the real culprit is.

Bring on the Yakuza!

After Ghosn’s spectacular evasion from Japan, that country’s auhorities must be profoundly humiliated and looking for ways to retrieve their famous fugitive.

As we often say, all is fair in love and war, and if Shinzō Abe’s government wants the beleaguered auto executive under its control, it show asked the Yakuza for help.

For those who don’t know it, I’m talking about the infamous Japanese Mafia. They are well-known for their strict codes of conduct, their well organized nature, and unconventional ritual practices.

Adding to that the intriguing nature of Beirut as the epicenter of espionnage, we’d have a wonderful continuum in the “Carlos, the fugitive” saga.

I had predicted a month ago that Carlos Ghosn would flee, so let’s see if my hunch about the Yakuza bringing back the famous escapee materializes one more time…

How to punish Wells Fargo

On Monday, John G. Stumpf listen shamelessly as he was scolded by U.S. Senators. This was a nice display of good intentions by the Government, yet Mr. Stumpf will get out scot-free, won't go to prison, won't be charged personally and his friendly Board of Directors won't fire him.

Still, Mr. Stumpf said that the 5,300 low-paid employees who had been terminated over the scandal “deserved” to lose their jobs. So what is one to do?

Pretty simple: Bank account holders should vote with their feet and move their accounts elsewhere.

I know, this is painful, highly inconvenient, but it's by far the only effective way left to punishing Stumpf, his high-ranking executives and his Board.

How to get even with others

Last night, as I was hearing that the recent Nairobi shopping center hostage taking by Al Shabaab was – once again - “revenge”, I thought that this ancient tool should be put aside for good.

Since revenge is a very arbitrary, imprecise and dangerous way to exert justice, why not rely more on a different set of methods for applying sanctions when the regular means of official justice are unpractical, take too long or are too costly. What I propose is casting a spell on other people that have affected us by invoking a higher authority like God, Allah, the Great Spirit, Nature, etc. I would take the form of prayer going about like this:

“Great Spirit, I want to let you you that ABC has been mean (good) to me and should be sanctioned justly for it. Please apply the punishment (reward) that you see fit and just. Don't delay it, put it into action as soon as possible and don't forge to signal that the suffering (pleasure) felt by ABC is in direct relation to the bad (good) deed he just did to me. Please apply this sanction under the law of Karma. Thank you and amen.”

That's it. I'm sure it works. This is far easy than getting into trouble by trying to render justice on one's one. It's quick, clean and simple. Oh yes, I almost forgot; I you were recipient of some good deed, make sure to thank your donor. If on the contrary you were a victim, ignore the perpetrator, just let power of your curse and the law of Karma work its magic...